It is “unacceptable” that millions of people diagnosed with diabetes do not have access to insulin because of financial hardship – 100 years after the lifesaving medication was discovered. World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking at a Global Diabetes Summit that saw the launch of a new Global Diabetes Compact […] Continue reading ->
The Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration and its allies in Congress have already posted an impressive track record of early efforts to revive and champion U.S. leadership in global health. The American Rescue Plan, proposed by President Biden in January and passed in March, includes significant emergency funding to support the international COVID-19 response through initiatives […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) both are hosting key global meetings aimed at improving global access to COVID-19 vaccines and fair medicine prices this week behind closed doors. The WHO Fair Pricing Forum started on Tuesday and its stated aim is to activate “additional support for countries to achieve […] Continue reading ->
In an unusually bold step for the cautious global health agency, the World Health Organization has called upon countries to suspend the sale of captured live wild mammals in food markets as an emergency measure. The appeal follows on the publication of a report by a WHO-convened international team examining the origins of the SARS-CoV2 […] Continue reading ->
Italian prosecutors in the city of Bergamo, the epicentre of the country’s first COVID wave, are reportedly investigating Ranieri Guerra, a senior World Health Organization advisor, for misleading testimony and his role in the suppression of a WHO report into Italy’s coronavirus response “An Unprecedented Challenge“- which contained critical material about the Italian government’s […] Continue reading ->
African vaccine producers supply just 1% of the continent’s needs at present – but the plan is to increase this to 60% by 2040, according to John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “The vision is to ensure Africa has timely access to vaccines to protect public health security, by establishing […] Continue reading ->
Although taxing tobacco products is one of the most effective ways to discourage smokers – and it provides governments with revenue – it is “the least implemented” tobacco control policy globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “It takes vision and courage for political leaders to stand up against the powerful vested interests that […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a global “reality check” as COVID-19 infections increased by 4.4 million in the past week, with countries and individuals abandoning proven methods to protect themselves. “This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, where we have proven control measures. It […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency is reviewing the cases of four people who developed blood clots after receiving Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine, the regulator announced on Friday. “Four serious cases of unusual blood clots with low blood platelets have been reported post-vaccination with COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen. One case occurred in a clinical trial and […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – South Africa has secured enough COVID-19 vaccine doses for 41 million people from Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer, but only 6 million of these will be delivered by June because of “supply constraints”, the country’s health ministry announced on Friday. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a civil society briefing that the vaccination […] Continue reading ->